A Study On America's Soviet Policy (1933-1941)

At present, concerning the study of history, most scholars of our country put the focus of their study on the cold war period, and have not given enough attention to America's Soviet policy during the years from 1933 to 1941. At present, concerning the study of history, most scholars of our country put the focus of their study on the cold war period, and have not given enough attention to America's Soviet policy during the years from 1933 to 1941.In fact, America's Soviet policy during this period plays an very important role not only in American history but in the history of the world. So to speak, the first cooperation of U.S. with the Soviet Union, a country with a different social system and different ideology as opposed to U.S, not only offered the essential base to both the forming of antifascist alliance during the World War Two and the ultimate victory of the War, but also, after this, offered strong theoretical basis and practical support for the forming and developing of America's Soviet policy and therefore, produced far-reaching effects on both the United States and the Soviet Union.Making use of the declassified documents of U.S. government and on the basis of current research achievements, this paper reviews comprehensively America's Soviet policy during the period of 1933-1941, including some aspects as the reason and process of American government's determination to recognize Soviet Union, the fundamental establishment of the policy of using and restricting the Soviet Union made by U.S., the carrying out all around of the policy of using and restricting the Soviet Union, the ending of the policy of using and restricting the Soviet Union after the breaking out of the war between Soviet Union and Germany and the beginning of the war-time cooperation between American government and Soviet Union. Based on this, by exploring the performance, characteristics, reason and the means of America's Soviet policy during this period, the paper reveals the developing thread of America's Soviet policy and its influence on the process of the development of the world history. In modern society, because two different kinds of social systems—capitalism and socialism still coexist, also that the United States, as the only superpower after the collapse of the Soviet union, still regards ideology as the important factor to consider in its treating of diplomatic relations with socialist countries, as a result, the study on America's Soviet policy and the exploration of the starting point and the essence of U.S. diplomatic policy is helpful for our government to take the right policy and countermeasure in its present foreign relations.Starting from the viewpoint of the dialectical materialism and historical materialism, using mainly the historical research methods and meanwhile combining the research means of politics and other subjects, this paper attempts to elucidate three issues through the combing and analysis of the declassified documents of U.S. government:(1)the policy of using and restricting the Soviet Union made by U.S., who was forced to put aside its ideological differences with the Soviet Union under the situation of internal and external predicaments, was a kind of temporary policy implemented by U.S., and it was enslaved by the strategic position and objectives of U.S of that time;(2)the policy of using and restricting the Soviet Union made by U.S. was influenced and restricted by such factors as the wrong cognition by U.S. of the Soviet Union, rigid diplomacy and the developing status of the international society; at the same time, in the formation of U.S. policy toward the Soviet Union, ideology played a potential role which can not be neglected;(3)Preventing the invasion by Germany, Japan, Italy fascist states, promoting economic recovery and the expanding of American values were the starting point and the destination of the policy of using and restricting the Soviet Union made by U.S.